She's an anchoring, belly putter using third-year player on the LPGA tour, a 25-year-old who hails from England and is looking for her first win. She's a daughter of a former jockey and a newlywed who went shark diving in a cage on her honeymoon in South Africa. She's the wife of a sports anchor at SVV6-TV in Sarasota, Fla.

And she's a serious contender this week to win the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

In a whirlwind 24 hours, Ewart Shadoff moved from the edge of obscurity into the center of the spotlight in the LPGA's first major championship of the season. Playing in the final group in Thursday's first round, a late birdie-binge moved Golf Channel to pre-empt its regular viewing schedule to remain live to capture Ewart Shadoff's final two holes when she grabbed a share of the lead with a 4-under-par 68. Friends called and texted her with the news, excited in the extra coverage. Husband Adam included shots of her round in his sports roundup segment.

But the attention — and pressure of being in major contention — didn't rattle EwartShadoff in Friday's second round under sunlit skies at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course.

Looking every bit like a steely veteran player who handles pressure, a tough course and a spike in attention all at the same time, Ewart Shadoff remained in a share of the lead with an even-par 72 in the second round after the morning wave of players finished play.

Ewart Shadoff was tied with Pornanong Phatlum (69) at 4 under. Na Yeon Choi, who along with Ewart Shadoff and Suzann Pettersen held the lead after 18 holes, birdied her first hole to get to 5 under as the afternoon wave of players began.

Among the best in the morning were former world No. 1s Jiyai Shin (71, 3 under) and Ai Miyazato (68, 2 under).

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Inbee Park of South Korea poses with the trophy after winning the Kraft Nabisco Championship on Sunay at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif. She won by four shots to claim her second major title.
Jeff Gross, Getty Images

Suzann Pettersen of Norway fires her second shot on the 12th hole during the first round of the Kraft Nabisco Championship on Thursday at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
Stephen Dunn, Getty Images

Paula Creamer shot 68 to get to 2 under. World No. 2 Yani Tseng, however, made a triple-bogey 7 on the par-4 seventh and shot 75 to go to 3 over.

Ewart Shadoff was glad there was a quick turnaround between the first and second rounds. She finished her first round at 6:20 p.m. Pacific Time on Thursday and teed off at 8:54 a.m. Friday. She got at least 20 texts and phone messages — six from her husband — Thursday night and he Twitter account "was blowing up like crazy." She was nervous at the start of Friday's round but calmed down after two holes.

"To finish late and then come back out at 9 again this morning, it would have been a lot worse to have the opposite way around to sit and dwell on where I was at the time," she said.

She didn't look nervous — nor did she look agitated despite rimming more than four birdie putts. Her competitiveness — which she credits her parents for passing along to their daughter — remained stout throughout the round.

It's that competitiveness that got her into the ice cold water on her honeymoon to look sharks right in the eye. The charter boat was home to 30 people that day, and the cage was big enough to hold eight people. Cautious at first, Ewart Shadoff let eight others go first. Then she got in the cage.

"It honestly looked really safe," she said. "The worst part about it was the water was like minus something and it was awful being in the water itself. But once you go down and see the sharks, it's pretty awesome.

"I think we saw six different sharks when we were out there."

Ewart Shadoff also sees a new putting technique in her future. She's resigned to the belief that the R&A and USGA will ban anchoring. Ewart Shadoff started anchoring two years ago after she had 37 putts in a round.

"I've said this a lot of times, but all you have to do is look at my putting stats to know it's not a huge advantage," she said. "To be honest, if they do decide to ban it, it wouldn't be a huge issue for me. I'd have to spend a couple months really working out with a short putter, but it wouldn't be a huge deal for me."

She's treating the weekend the same way.

"I'm honestly just going to go out there and do what I've been doing in the last two rounds," Shadoff said. "I'm really comfortable with where my game is. I wasn't really hitting my driver that well (Thursday), and I hit it probably the best club in my bag today. So I'm really happy with where I am there.

"Obviously, putts weren't dropping today, so, hopefully, I can find a middle ground on that (Saturday). But I expect there to be a couple of good rounds. I like to chase the lead rather than be in the lead, so it kind of spurs me on a lot."